The Government released its Heat & Buildings Strategy yesterday, 19th October 2021, which encourages the take up of low carbon heating, such as heat pumps. It states no new build homes will be installed with gas or oil boilers from 2025, and there will be no gas boilers sold in the UK after 2035.

The announcement includes £3.9b of new funding for decarbonisation to help the country meet its net zero targets.

The new strategy includes the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. Providing up to £5000 grants for homeowners, it aims to assist those who are looking to switch to a low carbon alternative. With £450m pledged, this should cover approximately 90,000 installations. This falls very short of the proposed 600,000 installations per year that formed part of the ’10 point plan’ released by the government last year though, and it does not account for the improvement of insulation required for heat pumps.

Still, it’s an opportunity for MCS installers as heat pumps look to be the preferred replacement for the boilers as and when they require it.

The new scheme will begin in April 2022, following on from the closure of the RHI scheme. RHI stops taking applications on the 31st March 2022. The new scheme will be available to households in England and Wales.